Bishops Say, Protect the Poor

Catholic advocates are pressing Congress to make the needs of poor and vulnerable people a priority as legislators hammer out a federal spending plan for 2016. They want to prevent trillions of dollars in social services spending from disappearing over the next decade as Congress seeks to balance the federal budget and reduce the nation’s growing debt.

“There are millions of people at stake in these decisions,” said Brian Corbin, senior vice president for social policy at Catholic Charities USA, which has joined with Catholic Relief Services and the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops in meetings on Capitol Hill. “They all have a name and a face and based on our principle of human dignity, that name and that face and that family, those really are important to making issues of poverty real.”